Automatic safety-deposit box.



T. CROSSLEY'.

AUTOMATIC SAFETY DEPOSIT BOX.

APPLICATION. EILED MN 27, I916.

Patented July 11, 1916.

a)?" .l. 14 1d THEODORE CEUSSLIIEY, OF RIVERSIDE, CALIFORNIA.

AUTOMATIC SAFETY-DEPOSIT BOX.

maataa.

To all whom it may concern."

Be it known that I, THEODORE CBOSSLEY, a citizen of the United States,residing at Riverside, in the county of Riverside and State ofCalifornia, have invented new and useful Improvements in AutomaticSafety- Deposit Boxes, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to an automatic safety deposit box for bread andthe like, adapted to be secured to the front of the house at anysuitable place, and which while allowing the goods such as bread, milk,meat and the like to be deposited therein, will prevent any unauthorizedremoval of the goods deposited in said box.

In many communities milk, bread, meat and a few other articles aredelivered at the front door, by placing the same on the porch. Notinfrequently the articles so deposited are stolen or otherwiseinterfered with by unauthorized persons.

It is an object of this invention to devise a safety deposit boxprovided with a simple yet efficient mechanism .for automaticallylocking the box when the article is deposited therein. The safety box ispreferably made of two or more compartments, each compartment beingindependent of the other. The weight of the article deposited willoperate a locking mechanism, whereby the two downwardly opening hingeddoors at the top of the safety deposit box are locked until a lockedside door of the box is opened and the article is removed. lhe removalof the article will automatically unlock the locking device so that thesafety deposit box is again ready for the delivery of foods, of thecharacter described.

Another object of this invention is to construct a safety deposit boxwhich is simple of construction, positive in operation and inexpensiveof manufacture. I

With the foregoing and other objects in view which will appear as thedescription Specification of Letters Patent. Patngntngdl July JUL, 1916,flpplicatio'n filed January 27, 1918. Serial No. 74,674. I

eral walls 12, a bottom wall 13 and a top wall 14. The front of said boxis provided with a cover 15 hinged at the lower edge. A padlock 16 atthe upper end in front of said box is provided, whereby the front door15 maybe locked. The rear wall 11 is provided with screw holes 101 forthe reception of screws, whereby saidbox may be secured to the house atany suitable place.

The box is divided into two equal vertical compartments 17 and 18 bymeans of a vertical division wall-19. It will be understood that morecompartments may be provided, or the box may consist of a singlecompartment. Each of said com artments is independent of the other. Reerring to compartment 17, a tubular member 20 open at the top iscentrally secured to the bottom thereof. A helical spring 21 is disposedin said tubular member 20 and has its upper end projecting verticallyupward for a suitable distance out of the upper end of the tubularmember. The upper end of the spring 21 engages the under side of ahorizontal shelf or tray 22. A tubular ide member 23 secured to theunder side 0 said tray 22 surrounds the upper end of the tubular member20 and'is in slidable engagement therewith. A pair of lugs 24 aresecured to the under side of the shelf 22 on opposite sides of thehelical spring 21. As

clearly shown in Fig. 5, each lug 24 is provided with a pair of parallellongitudinal bores 25 adapted .to receive the lower end of a lockoperating lever 26 of the bell crank type. The lever is made of steelWire bent upon itself to form two parallel members 27 and 28. The freeends of said members are passed through the bores 25 of the lug 24 sothat the closed end of said members will lie close to the inner end ofsaid lug 24. The members 27, 28 are bent upon themselves to form a .pairof eyes 29 through which a horizontal pivot pin 30 is passed, said pivotpin being securely attached to the adjacent wall. The members 27, 28extend vertically upward in parallel relation to the adjacent side wallof the compartment and pass through an ear 31- the downward movement ofsaid shelf.

secured to the upper end of the adjacent wall, the function of said earbeing to limit the inner swinging movement of said members. The extremeupper ends of the members 27 and 28 are inserted in bores 32 ofcorresponding size in the locking member 33. The latter consists of adownwardly tapered block of metal provided with a flat upper face. Iprefer to solder the upper ends of the members 27, 28 to the lockingmember 33. This form of attachment admits of very accurate adjustment ofthe distance between the locking member 33 and the top wall of thecompartment. The portion of the wall 14 over the compartment 17 isprovided with an opening 14, closed from the under side by a double doorcomprising two door sections 34 and 35 having overlapping edges 36. Thedoor sections 34 and 35 are provided with spring hinges 102 allowingsaid doors to be opened downwardly into the compartment, the dooropening 14 being smaller in dimension than the two door sections 34 and35. I prefer to construct the shelf 22 of a resilient metal plate thougha rigid plate may be substituted therefor. The sides of said shelfadjacent the locking lever are cut away as at 37 to allow the shelf 22to be vertically reciprocated for a slight distance.

The operation of the safety deposit box is as follows: Assuming that thefront door 15 is in place and locked by means of padlock 16, and thecompartments are empty, then the movable shelf 22 will occupy theposition shown in the compartment 17 of Fig. 1. The action of the.helical spring 21 holding said shelf in its normal inoperativeposition, the lock operating levers 26 occupying the position shown,that is the vertical arms'will be parallel to the adjacent side walls ofthe compartment and the locking members 33 will be out of verticalalinement with the "top door of the compartment. In this position thedoor sections 34 and 35 will be free to move downwardly on their hinges102. The article to be depos ited,such as a milk bottle 38 shown in thecompartment 18 may be inserted by merely pushing the bottom thereofagainst the folding door sections 34 and '35. The spring hinges willclose the door sections as soon as the bottle passes through the doors.As the milk bottle engages the shelf 22, the latter will be moveddownwardly a short distance against the tension of the helical spring 21by the weight of the bottle. The upper end of the tubular holder 20 lilrli ilts e bell crank levers 26 will'be swung on their pivots 30 causingthe long vertical arms of said levers to move inwardly, the inwardmovement being limited by the stop cars 31. The position of the lockingmembers 33 will be as shown in the compartment 18 of Fig.

1. It will be noted that the inner part of the top of said lockingmembers will be immediately beneath the overlapping edges of the doorsections 34 and 35, as clearly shown in Figs. 3 and 4. The two lockingmembers are at opposite ends of the overlapping edges of the doorsections, thus securely and firmly holding the doors in their lockedposition. It is impossible to have access to the interior of thecompartment, except by unlocking the front door. After the removal ofthe bottle, the helical spring 21 will automatically restore the movableshelf 22 to its upper normal and inoperative position, hence causing thelocking members 33 to swing into their normal inoperative position shownin compartment 17, Fig. 1, allowing the door sections 34 and 35 to beopened downwardly.

It is thus seen that I have constructed a very simple, yet efficientsafety deposit box for the reception of milk, bread, meat and the like,in which the article may be deposited by a simple downward pressureagainst the doors at the top of said box, and just as soon as thearticle is deposited,

the safety deposit box will become automatically locked, preventing anyunauthorized removal or meddling with such article.

While I have shown the preferred construction of the safety deposit boxas now known to me, it will be understood that various changes in theconstruction, combination and arrangement of parts may be made by thoseskilled in the art without departing from the spirit of my invention asdefined in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. An automatic safety deposit box comprising a box, a side doortherefor, means for locking said door, a tubular spring holder centrallysecured on the bottom of said box, a vertically movable horizontalshelf, a tubular guidesecured to the bottom of said shelf andslidablymounted on said spring holder, a coiled spring in said holder upwardlyprojecting therefrom, the upper end thereof engaging the bottom of saidshelf, a pair of bell crank levers having their short arms secured atopposite sides to the bottom of said shelf and their long arms extendingvertically upward adjacent to theside walls of said box, said leversbeing fulcrumed to the side of said box, a pair of cars limiting theinner swinging movement of said vertical arms, a pair of locking membersattached to the upper ends of the ver- 2. An automatic safety depositbox comprising a box adapted to be secured to the wall of a building, aside door for said box, means for locking said door, a verticallymovable horizontal shelf within said box, a coiled spring securedsubstantially at the center of the bottom of said box, and engaging withits upper end the under side of the bottom of said shelf, a pair of bellcrank levers having their short arms secured at opposite sides to thebottom of said shelf and their long arms extending vertically upwardadjacent to the side walls of said box, said levers being fulcrumed tothe sides of said box, a pair of locking members attached to the upperends of the vertical arms of said levers and a pair of folding doorsprovided with spring hinges and opening downwardly from the top of saidbox, the meeting edges of said doors being in a vertical plane passingthrough said locking members, said locking members being adapted toswing into locking position underneath the meeting edges of said doors,whpreby the latter are locked in closed positlon when an article isdeposited on said shelf.

3. An automatic safety deposit box comprising a container, a doortherefor, means for locking said door, a vertically movable horizontalshelf in the lower end of said container, a spring engaging the'underside of said shelf, and tending to move said shelf upwardly to itsnormal inoperative position, a pair of bell crank levers having theirshort arms secured at opposite sides to said shelf and their long armsextending vertically upward, a pair of locking members attached to theupper ends of the long arms of said levers, and a pair of folding doorsprovided with spring hinges opening downwardly from the top of saidcontainer, the meeting edges of said doors being iu'a' vertical planepassing through said locking members, said locking members being adaptedto swing into locking position underneath the meeting edges of saiddoors whereby said per ends of the long arms of said levers and a pairof folding doors provided with spring hinges opening downwardly from thetop of said box, the meeting edges of said doors being in a verticalplane passing through said locking members, said locking members beingadapted to swing into locking position underneath the meeting edges ofsaid doors, whereby said doors are locked in closed position when anarticle is deposited on said shelf.

5. An automatic safety deposit box comprising a container, a doortherefor, means for locking said door, a vertically movable shelf insaid container, yielding means engaging the under side of said shelf andtending to move said shelf to its normal inoperative position, a pair oflocking members operatively connected to said shelf, a pair of foldingdoors provided with spring hinges opening downwardly from the top ofsaid container, the meeting edges of said doors being in a verticalplane passing through said locking members, said locking members beingadapted to swing into locking position underneath the meeting edges ofsaid doors, whereby said doors are locked in closed position when anarticle is deposited on said shelf.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification.

THEODORE CROSSLEY.

